


safe and sound

by leopoldjamesfitz



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, basically family fluff, me: i wanna write a fic about bbg and jemma with this (1) scene, me: writes this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-05-12 04:52:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19221958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leopoldjamesfitz/pseuds/leopoldjamesfitz
Summary: Jemma tucked an errant piece of curly hair away from her face and into the hood, pressing a kiss to the center of her forehead.Aurora held RoRo up for a kiss, too, and Jemma obliged, squeezing them both into a hug.After a moment of silence, Aurora sprung up from her seemingly comfortable sitting position, looking alarmed. “Cookie?” She asked, as if finally remembering what Jemma had offered a few minutes prior.Jemma let out a quiet laugh, shimmying out from underneath the table so that neither of them hit their heads trying to stand. “Yes, of course,” she agreed, watching as Aurora and RoRo stood up, the former looking expectantly. “I did promise that, didn’t I?”A FS family fluff fic that's guaranteed to rot your teeth out.





	safe and sound

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, hello, hi. This is terrible. Pinky promise. But it's fluffy! So yay to that!

“4… 3… 2… 1. Ready or not, here I come!”

From the corner of the room that the youngest Fitz-Simmons had designated to be the ‘counting area’, Jemma straightened up and with a slight groan, rose to her feet. Age wasn’t just hitting her dear husband, who always gave her a look when she giggled as he stood up, grunting quietly to himself, but she wouldn’t be the one to let it slow her down.

Placing her hands on her back as she twisted around, taking in the area, she let out a soft sigh. The house was almost silent, with the exception of the sound of the breeze coming through the window, and Monkey snoring away on the couch. But, after a moment, she heard the soft sound of giggles and smiled to herself.

Hide and seek was such a trivial game and something that would have once sent her panicking, but Jemma slowly moved around the room, hiding her own laughter. Six years ago, she might’ve been at the wits of her anxiety, but today, with the warm Summer sun coming in through the windows, she allowed herself a moment as she dramatically lifted up every cushion, peaking in between each one.

Aurora’s laughter only grew, and it hadn’t taken Jemma long to figure out that she was hiding under the table in the dining room, the same place she’d been hiding the last couple of rounds, but she was happy to carry out the search, and let both of their enjoyment extend for as long as possible.

They needed something else to focus on other than the obvious lack of Fitz, who had been pulled away on official S.H.I.E.L.D. business a handful of days prior.

They were only consulting now, a promise that they’d made Mack keep when they had settled in the small cottage, but every now and again, more than just a conversation over their private server was required, and they would be pulled out. It was infrequent, but necessary.

Still, though, the silence had never felt so loud.

“Huh,” Jemma shook her head, looking underneath the couch. “Not there, either.” She pursed her lips, moving over to peak behind the couch – which, really, wouldn’t have been enough room anyway, but the laughter that came from Aurora as she hid, thinking she had her Mama stumped, was worth every single moment.

She crossed the room, doing the same with the loveseat that was pressed against the wall, before standing at the opening of the room with her hands on her hips. Monkey, who had woken up when she’d investigated the love seat, snorted at her.

“Have you seen RoRo, Monkey?” She asked the pup, scratching behind his ears. “I can’t find her anywhere!”

If the dog was alarmed by her statement, he didn’t show it, just laying his head back down on his paws and dozing back off. Jemma envied him, but let out a soft laugh, beginning to move from their living room into the dining room. Aurora’s laugher carried throughout the house.

Underneath the dining table, sprawled on her belly and peaking through the chair legs at Jemma, was their four year old, giggling quieter now that Jemma was in the room, but definitely not making her presence a secret. Jemma smiled quietly to herself, noticing the tail from her favorite monkey onesie – which she would have to play Sheriff later to get her to allow her to wash it – peaking out from underneath one of the chair legs.

For the purpose of the game, she ignored it, taking a quick glance to see Aurora pull the hood of her onesie up and over her wild curls, as if that would make her harder to find. If anything, the two half moon shaped ears that were stitched onto the top only made her stand out more.

Jemma pressed her lips together, and after another quick glance at the living room, as if making sure that she definitely hadn’t missed the little one out there, she set out to investigating the dining room.

She first looked behind the ornate cabinet that had been a gift from her parents when they’d moved in. Not there. Then she moved to the small bench that was underneath the large window in the room, lifting up the top of it to look inside. Not there, either.

“Hmm,” she said aloud, peaking in behind the vases of plants that were situated in the corner of the room, where the light would hit, and standing up straight. Aurora had shifted underneath the table, and her tail now poked out from underneath the table. “I can’t seem to find RoRo anywhere. That’s so strange. I was going to ask her if she wanted to make cookies, too.”

Jemma pursed her lips and looked toward the kitchen. For obvious reasons, in this game, there were several rooms that were off limits. The kitchen, their lab, and outside, were all three places she knew now to go. Outside hide and seek was a different game, more often played than inside hide and seek, but today had been decreed a ‘lazy day’ by the child when she’d crawled onto her Daddy’s side of the bed and sprawled out.

So, lazy day it was.

Jemma bent down, sliding her hands on the seat of each surrounding chair, just in case, and looked across at the other ones. She very deliberately kept her eyes level, not looking down at Aurora, even though she could see her from her periphery, and let out a defeated sigh.

“My goodness,” she said, pursing her lips into a pout. “I can’t find Aurora anywhere! She’s so good at this game.”

Her statement only made Aurora peel into laughter, and the little girl sat up, RoRo the monkey in her hands, and grinned at her. “I’m right here, Mama!” She cried, lisping her way through her words, and Jemma jumped, if only for the show, pretending to be shocked.

“There you are!” She exclaimed, pushing a chair out of the way as she sunk to the floor, collecting the little one in her arms. “You’re such a good hider! I couldn’t find you at all!”

Aurora grinned, leaning into Jemma as she hoisted RoRo the monkey onto her lap, playing with the fraying bits of fur – the thing really had seen the best of its days. She tilted her head up, and Jemma tucked an errant piece of curly hair away from her face and into the hood, pressing a kiss to the center of her forehead.

Aurora held RoRo up for a kiss, too, and Jemma obliged, squeezing them both into a hug.

After a moment of silence, Aurora sprung up from her seemingly comfortable sitting position, looking alarmed. “Cookie?” She asked, as if finally remembering what Jemma had offered a few minutes prior.

Jemma let out a quiet laugh, shimmying out from underneath the table so that neither of them hit their heads trying to stand. “Yes, of course,” she agreed, watching as Aurora and RoRo stood up, the former looking expectantly. “I did promise that, didn’t I?”

Aurora nodded, making RoRo nod, too, and then, once Jemma was standing, the duo ran into the kitchen. Aurora was saying something that she couldn’t quite pick out, talking animatedly to RoRo, and with a soft smile, she followed them into the kitchen before Aurora remembered where the flour was.

(She’d never forget the mother’s day mayhem that had been Fitz and Aurora trying to make pancakes without waking her.)

She found Aurora, already standing on her stool, on her tip-toes, reaching for the canister that they kept the flour in. For her credit, she managed to at least feign sheepishness when she was caught. But the giggling caught up with her half a moment later, and Jemma rolled her eyes.

“Alright,” she perked up, rolling up her sleeves and moving toward the counter. “Where do we start?”

 

* * *

 

Long after the kitchen was destroyed and then cleaned up, and she’d spent her time in ‘jail’ while the monkey onesie was being washed, the two of them curled on Aurora’s tiny twin sized bed, a book held between them.

It was a standard one about a princess locked away in a high tower, awaiting a prince to rescue her, and if it didn’t make their daughter as happy as it did, Jemma might have thrown the whole thing away. What a thing to teach young minds.

Aurora leaned back, badly hiding a yawn under RoRo’s fur, and Jemma tilted her head, sharing a knowing look with the girl that told her she’d caught that. Aurora pouted in response.

“Not tired.” She argued, even though she was slurring her words a little more than usual, and her honeyed hues were having trouble keeping themselves open. “How many more sleeps?”

Jemma closed the book, leaving it to sit on the side table. Since Fitz had unexpectedly had to leave, they’d both been feeling the absence. But Aurora especially so. In the end, Jemma had laid the time he’d be gone in a way that Aurora was familiar with – it was, after all, the same system that they’d used with her when it came to Christmastime. Daddy, in the beginning, had been only eight sleeps away.

Tonight, he was two.

Jemma held up two fingers, not saying a word as the little one lifted a tired fist and poked her index finger, “one,” she said softly, and then poked the middle finger beside it, “two.” She whispered, a soft gasp. “Daddy is only two sleeps away, Mama.”

Jemma nodded, pulling Aurora into a close embrace, folding her hands together at her hip as she leaned her head against their daughter’s. This position was not conductive at all to sleep, given that if Aurora did fall asleep, she’d likely be woken up once more by Jemma trying to slip out, but she was content enough to hold her, lightly rocking her.

Aurora finally dozed off after another story – _your story_ , she insisted, because there was something particularly incredible about listening to it, to her. Aurora hadn’t made it past the monolith yet, and Jemma didn’t anticipate she would any time soon, either.

She lifted her gently, laying her down and shuffling the pillows around her. RoRo, which had slid onto her lap in the past few moments, was laid gently in her arms, and Jemma pressed a soft kiss to her daughter’s forehead before slipping out of the room.

She’d barely begun descending the stairs before her phone began to ring lightly, the telltale sound of an incoming FaceTime call. It didn’t require a look to tell who was calling her, but she held her phone tightly against her chest, if only to mask the sound, until she stepped onto the downstairs floor and fell into the couch.

It was on it’s fourth ring when she finally picked up, and the face that greeted her looked as melancholic as she felt. She tugged a blanket over her legs and leaned into the back of the couch.

“Hi,” he said before she had a chance. She offered him a soft smile in response. “I just missed her, didn’t I?”

The five hour time difference wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things – they’d conquered it all at this point; space, time, distance – but Aurora had not. Jemma nodded her head quietly, stifling a yawn with the back of her hand. “Mm,” she hummed softly. “Fell asleep right before the monolith. It must be a really boring part.”

Fitz chuckled quietly. “That’s because you spend so long explaining the semantics of the monolith,” he teased, which made her eyebrows raise on her forehead in mock exasperation.

“Are you critiquing my story telling, Mr. Fitz-Simmons?” She asked, mouth slightly agape.

His amusement was palpable, and he leaned back in his chair with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. “I’m just saying, Mrs. Fitz-Simmons,” he countered, using the same tone that he would if he were explaining a concept to his students. It was unfair, she was trying to be mock-angry with him. “That I have definitely gotten to the evil robots before she’s fallen asleep on me.”

Jemma pressed her lips together in a fine line, unable to hide her own amusement as she shook her head, rolling her eyes slightly at his petulance. He really needed to turn everything into a competition, didn’t he? She’d be annoyed if he wasn’t so cute about it.

“How are things going there?” She asked, steering the conversation away from the inevitable win. He’d never let her live it down. But also, her curiosity won over. They weren’t part of S.H.I.E.L.D., not really, but they were still granted the opportunity to be in the know, for the most part. She liked the advances they were making. She just wished it didn’t involve overseas trips in order to help them out.

Fitz scratched at the scruff, tilting his head to the side as he made a face of displeasure. “Mostly alright,” he answered honestly. “I’ve finished what they need me for, just sticking around to make sure that Deke doesn’t burn down the place.” He let out a soft scoff, and she laughed. “I still can’t believe they have him running things around here.”

“Hey,” she called, a teasing edge to her voice. “You signed off on that, too, Fitz.”

As if he didn’t know.

“They offered me endless time with you,” he countered, looking slightly sheepish, all the while happy to prove his point. “They could have told me a monkey was going to run the lab and I would have approved.” He tilted his head to the side, looking pensively at nothing. “On second thought…”

Jemma rolled her eyes at him. "Hush, you." She murmured, although there was a pang in her chest for how sweet, yet genuine his comment was. Two days truly wouldn’t come fast enough. And by the look he mirrored in her direction, she knew – even from as far away as they were – that he felt the same.

In the background there was a clatter, and then a grunt, and then, “Fitz?”

On screen, her husband audibly groaned. “Coming!” He shouted, running his hand down his face. “Pretty sure he just capsized a week’s worth of work… thankfully not mine. I have to go and make sure he doesn’t try stepping on glass. But I’ll talk to you tomorrow and the next day…”

“You’ll be home,” she finished for him, offering him a soft, contented smile. “I’ll be at the airport with bells on,” she joked.”

Fitz stopped, leaning into the camera with a plain stare. “Just bells, because I don’t know if you know this, but…”

Jemma rolled her eyes. “Bye Fitz.” She interrupted, laughing despite herself. “We love you.”

He offered her a slight smile, interrupted only by Deke yelling, “Fitz?” again and nodded, pressing his lips into a fine line. “I love you both,” he told her, and hung up, leaving her to stare at her phone for another moment in silence.

Really, who knew she’d be this person? The type of person who longed, waiting on phone calls and video chats because it made them feel a little less lonely? She felt ridiculous, but in the same breath, wouldn’t change a thing for the world.

Monkey barked at nothing, startling her, and she looked toward him, noticing the laundry basket at the edge of the couch, where she’d left it before crawling upstairs with their young one, unceremoniously drop to the ground. Jemma let out a sigh.

“Guess that’s my cue to fold it, huh, Monkey?”

 

* * *

 

The Day Of, as Jemma began calling it, Aurora woke her up at 5:00AM. Whether or not their daughter had been up longer than that – given the level of excitement that she had, she was willing to wager that she had – or not was to be unseen. Fitz’s flight didn’t come in until late morning, though he’d sent her a text letting her know that he was boarding.

If anything, it made waking up early worth it.

They made pancakes shaped to resemble something that might look like a monkey, though Jemma knew that Fitz was the artist of their family, cleaned up the house (under the guise of making everything perfect for Daddy) and rested. And by that point, it was only 9:00AM. Still two hours before they could even begin the trek to the airport, to get there in time to park and situate themselves.

And while she already knew this, she learned very quickly that patience wasn’t their daughter’s best trait. Aurora had no interest in distracting herself with the television – something that they limited her to, anyway, because too many kids grew up fixated on both that and media in general – or playing her absolute favorite game, I spy. Or even reading, which was another thing that she’d grown to love, since they’d begun teaching her small words.

And she was wholly grumpy with every minute that passed, even more so when she would ask, “is it time yet?” and Jemma had to remind her that, no, it was still only 9:04AM.

This was going to be an incredibly long morning. Even more so because she couldn’t even convince Aurora to take a quick nap, because sleeping would make the time go faster – and really, Jemma suspected that some of the grumpiness came from being awake for so long – but the young one was frightened that they would somehow miss the six alarms Jemma had already planned on her phone.

Monkey nuzzled his way onto Aurora’s lap, snuffling happily when she began to pet him.

Aurora let out a grumpy sigh, that would have been cute if it weren’t so infuriating. She really was her father’s child, sometimes, but in this instance, the stubbornness was all her. Jemma gave her a wilting stare and turned back to the blank telly, wishing away the next few hours.

Thankfully, eventually, Jemma convinced her to spend a little bit of time out in the sun, and after successfully wrangling her into the appropriate amount of sunscreen, the two of them played out in the backyard. Jemma sat on a blanket with Monkey, who basked in the sunlight and tilted her head back. She had her phone on her, the sound on high, and the time brighter than ever.

They wouldn’t miss Daddy, which seemed to be Aurora’s biggest worry. Jemma sympathized, because she knew that the little one was still learning about time and how it passed, and they’d begun teaching her the importance of patience, but it was still all very new to her. And well, as much as the young girl loved her mother, she loved her father just as passionately, and the separation in the last handful of days hadn’t been easy for either of them.

Jemma wouldn’t deny that it felt like her skin was crawling, every minute longer than the last.

When her first alarm finally went off, the duo shared a look of exhaustion and relief, and Jemma began packing things up. The first alarm was only set with the intention of getting them ready and on the go. Not for anything else, really.

Getting Monkey settled was something else entirely, because Aurora kept coming up to him and working him up. Jemma was sure that Monkey didn’t actually really know just quite what she was saying to him – given that Jemma herself found it difficult to understand the young girl – but rather was feeding off of her energy.

In the end, the only thing that got her to stop was the reminder that they would be late. Which, they could not be, because Jemma’s sixth and final alarm, that went off about the same time as her warning, was set about forty two minutes before they needed to be at the airport. That was allowing for traffic, any set-backs in his own flight, or him perhaps getting lucky and arriving early.

A quick check at the airport database before she’d begun to drive told her neither of those things would be an issue, though she couldn’t quite account for traffic. Glasgow was, as always, unpredictable.

Aurora softly whined in the backseat when they were stopped at, yet again, another red light. “Are you sure we’ll make it on time?” She asked, stretching in her car seat to see the time, as though it wasn’t something she was still struggling a little to read.

Their daughter was brilliant, but they’d both decided not to push her. If she turned out like her parents, then she did. If she didn’t, she didn’t. They really weren’t going to be Those parents.

Jemma met her eyes in the rear-view mirror and nodded. “We still have plenty of time. Daddy won’t have to wait for us, I promise.”

That seemed, if nothing else, to satisfy her briefly, although Jemma did not miss the saddened gazes she tossed out the window each time the car pulled to a stop. That look remained until Jemma pulled into a parking spot at the airport, and it was only when she pulled the car into a stop that Aurora looked up from her staring and gasped.

“Are we here?” She asked, looking back out the window. Overhead, an airplane slid through the skyline, and that was more confirmation that Jemma could have given her verbally. Aurora tried to press her face as close to the window as possible, trailing after it with her eyes until it disappeared.

It was the first time that Jemma noticed the curiosity that shone in her eyes, and wondered if she wouldn’t turn after her father more in the interests’ department, but didn’t make a comment on it. Instead, she slid out of the front seat, opened her door and helped her out of her car seat. She held her hand securely, because the young girl refused to be carried, and kept her eyes on her as she and RoRo bobbed along through the crowds.

She checked the multiple screens for his flight along the way, making sure that nothing had changed since they’d departed and was thankful when they hadn’t. And then, pulling up to the arrivals deck, she sat down on a bench and helped Aurora up to sit beside her, checking the time on her phone before she laid it in her lap.

Aurora pulled RoRo into her lap and snuggled it close. Jemma reached over, pulling the hood of the onesie that she couldn’t quite talk her out of today – even if it was a special day – down over her curls, brushing a few errant ones out of her face and kissed her forehead. She was sure their anxiousness was palpable to anyone nearby.

His flight landed shortly after they sat down – the airport was always larger than she’d be able to calculate, and walking with Aurora hadn’t been something that she’d been able to factor in, given that usually Aurora adored being carried around everywhere – and she breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the screen change to taxiing.

“What does that mean?” Aurora asked when Jemma said that to her, and while Jemma’s explanation was clumsy, the young girl got the main points. “Daddy’ll be here soon,” she gasped, and looked toward the area that Jemma had pointed out, as though expecting him to step out within the next few minutes.

Jemma knew they had at least a fifteen minute wait before anyone would begin ascending, but she was happy to wait, watching with her. Every moment that passed, she felt like her heart rate was spiking, and the longer she waited, the more her excitement grew. She knew that their daughter felt the same.

In the end, she ended up hooking her arm around Aurora, so that she wouldn’t end up trampled by a crowd when they did finally see Fitz. Instead, she’d have to wait until Jemma released her, which calmed her a lot more than the thought of losing the young one within a crowd of people.

The first handful of people who began descending were nobodies, though Aurora began to wiggle in her grip, as though finally realizing that she was stuck, as there was a short break – obviously the people at the front of the aircraft who’d gotten off first – and then a following of another group of people.

Still no Fitz.

If she hadn’t known the size of the aircraft, and the amount of people that had been crammed on it, she would be worried a little more than what she was. But still, she exhaled quietly, reminded Aurora that he was on his way, and waited.

She saw him first, or so that was what she would argue later. His hair was messy and it was clear he hadn’t shaved in a couple of days – neither was anything she was actually complaining about, although Aurora hated when he was ‘scratchy’ – but he was there, right in front of her, alive and happy and within her reach.

Aurora got to him first, though, wrapping her tiny arms around his neck before he could properly bend to her height and knocking the wind out of both of them, she was sure. His voice was low as he spoke to her, gentle words that didn’t quite reach her, but warmed her heart anyway. Jemma stood, scooping up RoRo – who had been abandoned in her haste to get to her father – and watching the scene unfold.

A moment later, Fitz hooked his arm underneath Aurora’s knees and stood with her, hovering for a moment to regain his balance – they weren’t getting any younger – before he crossed the short distance and reached for her.

It felt like the pieces of her heart came back together when she finally felt him underneath her fingertips, and she was tugged into a tight embrace. She settled in beside Aurora on his opposite side. He squeezed them both and pressed gentle kisses on their foreheads.

“Home?” He murmured against Jemma’s forehead, and she sighed, nodding gently.

Though, truly, she thought – she was already there.


End file.
